May 28, 2016

Girls und Panzer Movie

Miho's secret weapon!

A torrent for the movie just showed up. It's a raw and the torrent is a whopping 15G. It's three files, one MKV and two MKA files, and it turns out you don't need the MKA files. They're alternate soundtracks; but the MKV has one that works just fine.

It is a BD rip, which surprised me; I didn't think the BD was going to be out until like August.

So how is it? Awesome! Tremendous! It doesn't feel like "been there, done that". It's enough similar to not feel like a stranger but enough different to not feel like a guest that's worn out its welcome. Even though I don't speak Japanese, it wasn't too difficult to figure out what was going on.

There are two major battles in it. The first is about half an hour long, and the trailer from last year is all taken from it. What's going on is an exhibition battle with two teams on each side. One side is St. Gloriana and Pravda; the other side is Ooarai and some team I never identified.

Their tanks were crap and they had spirit but no brains and got themselves slaughtered. I thought for a while that their equipment was Italian, but the theme music played for them sounded oriental. Maybe they were using Japanese tanks? Actually, I think they really were supposed to be another Italian team.

So that battle ended after half an hour, and it was so well done and so absorbing that I thought the movie was over. Instead we get about half an hour of plot, and then a second battle which ran fully an hour.

Huge spoiler:
Despite winning the championship, the asshole in the government decides to shut down the Ooarai school ship, so everyone has to pack and go ashore. Anzu hasn't given up yet, though, and she recruits a bunch of heavy hitters to go with her to visit the asshole one last time.

One of them is Shiho, Miho and Maho's mother. In this movie she's a good guy, which is really neat.

He gives them one last chance, though he doesn't think it's a chance. There's another team and if Ooarai can beat them, they'll get the ship back. It's a terrifyingly good team, and it shows up on the day of the battle with 30 tanks, of at least two national flavors. And if you think the Maus was scary, this team has two weapons that are even worse.

Anzu has told Miho that she has to win to save the school ship, but even as good as she is she can't beat 30 high quality tanks with her 8. But as she's walking out to greet the enemy commander just before the battle, a bunch of her friends from other teams show up, with their own tanks, and they're all wearing Ooarai uniforms and claim to be part of Miho's team.

And one of them is Maho, with her Tiger I. Which was also really neat. Maho is another good guy.

So the last hour of the movie is the battle, and if we know one thing about Miho is that she loves, loves, loves fighting in cities. There isn't a city this time but there's an amusement park, and that's where most of the battle is fought. And it was awesome. The ducks were the least of the pleasures.

It isn't a capture-the-flag battle, it's last-man-standing. To win you have to beat every tank the other side has.

So how does it come out? You need to ask? You think I'm going to tell you?

It's a BD rip, ultra high quality, and it has Japanese subtitles. (Which should be particularly helpful because in a couple of scenes two of the girls from Pravda speak Russian to each other.) I suspect it won't be long before we get an English sub, but you never know.

Assorted frame grabs below the fold.

St. Gloriana has its Churchill and three Matildas, but it also has a bunch of these guys. I don't know what they are.

Part of the first battle is fought in the town, and they really trash it. (And that golf course will never be the same.) It gets pretty crazy.

Fortunately she doesn't do a lot of damage to this shrine. And this hotel won't ever be the same, either.

This is pretty much the only fan service in the movie.

This obviously isn't period. It belongs to Pravda so I assume it's Russian, though I have no idea what it might be. There's a lot of non-period equipment that shows up during non-battle portions of the film. For instance, Saunders shows up one time with a C5 Galaxy.

An excellent job of subbing, and the movie makes more sense once you know what they're saying.

The best single line of dialogue in the movie is, "Hey, taxi!" There is a lot of fun dialogue in it, and I'm sure that the voice talent had a blast.

Another nice thing: Ardvaark team wasn't a joke this time. Well, they were, but they weren't worthless. The Type 3 made at least two kills, which is definitely a good score in a battle like this.

The team that partnered with Ooarai in the first battle was Chihatan high school, and their tanks were early-war Japanese. The theme music that sounded to me like it was Oriental was "Marching in the Snow", the one that Yukari and Caesar were singing when they were scouting during the battle against Pravda in the regular series. (I thought it sounded familiar.)

Yet another awesome thing: Anzio did really well in the last battle. Genuinely awesome.

The sub is 3G (compared to 10G for the raw) and that's small enough to be practical but large enough to be gorgeous. Much recommended!

St. Gloriana is toting along a Crusader III, an upgraded version of the original tank with a 6 pounder gun.

Posted by: cxt217 at May 29, 2016 12:33 PM (O59Br)

8
I loved the level of detail, especially in the callbacks to earlier in the series.

For me, the line that left me laughing the longest is "Idiot! I won't fall for it again!", once the resulting Hilarity Ensues.

I also liked some of the little details in the ending:
Katyusha sitting on, of all people, Erika's shoulders in the crowd shot.

After seeing Saunders flying home in the giant C-5 with junk food and Pravda sailing home in the massive hovercraft with Katyusha napping in her snowmobile bed, we get to see Anzio, headed home in a vintage pickup, with the tankette wedged in the back, the trio happily bobbing along in the front

There's also an OAV which goes after the movie in terms of story, which is a pretty funny bonus episode.

11
The final two "Yukari's Tank Corner" episodes have also been translated.

The second girl from the bottom right in the last picture is Kinuyo Nishi, commander of the Chihatan team.

Posted by: muon at May 30, 2016 12:10 AM (IUHrD)

12
I've been rewatching the original series and OVA's, and the number of little things that were turned into Chekov's Guns has continued to astound me.

After the first practice match with St. Gloriana in the series, there's a shot of Darjeeling and crew in front of a couple of tanks in the shadows, one of which is very clearly a Crusader, even though they only used the Matilda's and the Churchill in the match.

In OVA 3, when they're touring the ship, Miho and friends pass in front of a bunch of plaques with the logos of the other school ships. Included are Chihatan and the Finnish-themed Continuation High School.

Some spoilers:
The difference between flag and annihilation rules are clearly discussed at the first practice match with St. Gloriana. Although the high school tournament was all flag battles, annihilation rules are not just for practice matches...

The Shimada school of Sensha-do is very clearly mentioned in one of the original episodes as a rival to the Nishizumi school.

The tank cafe has a T-28 poster on the wall.

There is a flashback scene with Anzu where the original 'win the tournament, save the school' conditions were established which clearly shows the same smarmy glasses-wearing MEXT official.

While for dramatic purposes, it would have probably worked better to
put the Kuromorimine volunteers with their heavy tank additions to
Oarai at the end, it's incredibly heartwarming that they're the first
to join up, and Maho is the first other school student we see in the Oarai
uniform, identifying herself as an Oarai student.

Having each
school's music play as the tanks arrive is also awesome. Also, I found
that Katyusha's Oarai uniform being too big was hilarious.

Major spoiler regarding the ending of the movie:
The final showdown is a major moment of awesome on multiple levels: it's a showdown between the Nishizumi and Shimada schools of Sensha-do, by the teams commanded by the heirs of the Nishizumi and Shimada schools, and it comes down to the tanks commanded by the daughters of the heads of Nishizumi and Shimada families.

And it's a major moment of heartwarming that the combined force of Miho, Maho and the two tanks whose duel ended the high school nationals (Anglerfish and Tiger 212), pulled together to make it to that showdown and win by working together.

Oarai (with a little help) just defeated the national university team which defeated the national adult (effectively, pro) team.

Posted by: Civilis at May 30, 2016 07:17 AM (KlrGc)

13
About the ending:
"it's a showdown between the Nishizumi and Shimada schools of Sensha-do, by the teams commanded by the heirs of the Nishizumi and Shimada schools, and it comes down to the tanks commanded by the daughters of the heads of Nishizumi and Shimada families."

Except... Miho had been fighting by the book and it was going badly, and Maho told Miho to fight her own way. So Miho threw away the book, moved the battle into the amusement park, and started playing her own way.

I wonder how Shiho felt about that. Because that's when Miho started winning. This wasn't so much Nishizumi school beating Shimada school, as it was black-sheep Miho beating them both by doing everything wrong. I think that's why the final shot of Shiho and the other lady, and neither of them is looking particularly happy.

Partly that's an exercise in self control. But partly it's because they were both losers in the fight. It was Miho who defeated them both.

I think that deep down Shiho really does love Miho. The fact that Miho's room had been preserved is proof of that. And Shiho going out on a limb to help save Ooarai proves it. (I don't believe for a moment her excuse that she wants to save Ooarai so that they can be defeated by Black Forest.)

But it's still a slap in the face when Mio goes her own way AND WINS DOING IT.

I have a long-standing ultimatum over at The Pond: when there is an episode of anime that contains both Formula 1 and rubber ducks, I will finish the series, complete a writeup about it, then shut down The Pond. If the episode has a rubber duck either driving a F1 car, or has a rubber duck in a F1 car, I will put up one final "Ducks in Anime" post and close down immediately.

The OVA had the F1 cars, and while it had a duck-like substance in the tank, it was just a disguise, not a real rubber duck. So, very close, but...

Enclose all spoilers in spoiler tags:[spoiler]your spoiler here[/spoiler]
Spoilers which are not properly tagged will be ruthlessly deleted on sight.
Also, I hate unsolicited suggestions and advice. (Even when you think you're being funny.)

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